Wednesday 9th August 2017
Google Photos
Last
month we discussed the use of Google Photos – a free service to aggregate all
your photos in the Cloud and view them across all your devices. Google have
recently introduced Backup and Sync,
a utility that will run on your PC and will upload existing and new photos to
Google Photos. You can also use it to backup other folders to Google Drive. You
can see a quick video explanation from this recent podcast on the “twit.tv”
network broadcast on 15th July 2017 – go to minute 52 to see a 2
minute segment by Jason Howell:-
You
can also read more about it in this article posted by Paul Thurrott on 13th
July 2017:-
Ray asked about the security of documents and photos stored in the cloud. In general, cloud services from Google, Apple, Dropbox etc are fairly safe and secure, but data could get lost or even stolen by hackers. So, always ensure you have copies of your photos and documents in more than one place.
Encrypting Word Docs
For private documents, it might be wise to encrypt the document before uploading it to the cloud. Microsoft Word, for example, can encrypt a file using a password which you create for that document. There are a couple of ways to do this which are explained on this site for Word 2016:-
LibreOffice has a similar feature - see here:-
Managing & Editing Photos (John
Say)
While Google Photos is excellent at aggregating and sharing
your photos, it only has very basic editing features. John outlined and
demonstrated some techniques for managing and editing your photos using
either the paid-for Adobe Photoshop Elements (PE) or using the free GIMP. The latest version of PE is version 15 and costs around £86. However, you can probably acquire older versions, which are totally
John had 3 'golden rules' for photography:-
- Always be ready to take photos. With smartphones and tablets, that really just means ensuring your battery has plenty of charge.
- When adjusting photos, aim for really black blacks, really white whites, and colours should use as much of the spectrum as possible.
- Go in as close as you can on the main subject of the photo (use the zoom or crop later when editing).
Some of John's suggestion include:-
- Getting rid of rubbish. Select only the few relevant photos, although you might wish to retain all the originals, just in case.
- Copy the chosen photos to a folder on your PC which you name to indicate the Event and Date.
- Using PE or GIMP, apply the "two minute fix" which John demonstrated. This corrects things such a skewing, lighting, brightness, colours and crop if required.
- Upload the corrected images to the cloud. You will now have the good originals on your PC and in the Cloud.
- If you wish to make a special print of a photo, you may want to spend more time editing it to ensure it is perfect.
- Ensure you have backup copies of all you important pictures.
John also demonstrated the simple editing you can do with Adobe Photoshop Express on an iPad. Photoshop Express is also available on the Google Play Store for Android devices. Note that editing a photo using these mobile apps usually overwrites the original.
Q&A
Printing From Google Photos
Linda asked how to print photos from the Google Photos cloud on a PC. If you are viewing your photos in a browser (i.e. photo.google.com), you can use the print function in the browser - press Ctrl+P to access this. Alternatively, you can click on the 3-dot symbol which appears at the top right when you have selected a particular photo, and click on Download to save it to your PC. You can then print it in the same way you print any other jpeg file.
Amazon
Ray asked why Amazon often show that an item is available at various prices from other suppliers. Amazon sell their own products, but also provide a marketplace for other sellers. If you buy from one of these other sellers, you still have the protection of making the purchase through the Amazon system. Be aware that these marketplace sellers will have different delivery charges and times. Here is a help page from Amazon about ordering from a Marketplace seller:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201889310
Amazon
Ray asked why Amazon often show that an item is available at various prices from other suppliers. Amazon sell their own products, but also provide a marketplace for other sellers. If you buy from one of these other sellers, you still have the protection of making the purchase through the Amazon system. Be aware that these marketplace sellers will have different delivery charges and times. Here is a help page from Amazon about ordering from a Marketplace seller:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201889310
Printing This Blog
Margaret had a problem with the text size when printing this blog. I am not sure why, but, having clicked on the Print button at the bottom of the blog, there is a "Text Size" control at the top of the window which then opens. "100%" usually works. Having clicked the Print button at the top, you will have the usual control over printer properties - these will look different, depending on the browser and printer driver you are using.
Ray asked about printing a section of the blog. If you highlight the required section, you may be able to select "Selection" when the printer dialog box opens. However, it is probably easier to copy and paste the required section into Word, LibreOffice Writer, WordPad, etc and print from there.
Note that you can save the blog as a PDF by selecting "Microsoft Print to PDF" as the printer in the printer dialog box. Rather then actually printing the blog, this will create and save it as a file and you can specify the name and location.
Windows 10 - Optional Features
Tony's PC was, for some reason, showing the "Optional features" window. This is part of the Settings and you can access it at any time by going to Start, Settings, Apps, Apps & features and clicking on Manage optional features. (Note, if you are still running version 1607 of Windows, go to Start, Settings, System to find Apps & features). This will then show you a list of the optional features which you have installed. Clicking on any one of them gives you the option to Manage or sometimes to Uninstall that feature. Clicking on Add a feature will show any additional features that may be available for you to install.
Apps & Features
While we were looking at this area of Settings, I pointed out that going to Start, Settings, (Apps), Apps & features shows you all the installed apps. Clicking on any one of them gives you the option to Uninstall or Modify that app. In previous version of Windows, you had to go to Programs and Features in Control Panel to do this. Microsoft are gradually moving away from the old Control Panel to the new Settings for all controls.
Default Apps
Also found in Start, Settings, Apps is Default apps. Here you can see the current defaults and change them if you wish.
A default app is the one that will be used to open a file if you simply double-click on a file or click on a link. For example, you may have several browsers installed on your system, e.g. Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc. If you click on a web link in an email (which you should only do with caution!), Windows will look for the default browser to open that web page.
How Things Work – Ink Cartridges
Ray asked about the function of the small tear-off tab on new ink cartridges, particularly as the Epson cartridge did not appear to have a hole under the tab. In fact, the tab exposes the start of a groove which runs under the label and the air hole is at the other end of the groove. Ink cartridges need to let air in so that the ink can come out. This air hole is covered until you install it in the printer to prevent ink leakage. Why Epson use the groove, rather than a simple hole, I am not sure. Any suggestions anyone?
Margaret had a problem with the text size when printing this blog. I am not sure why, but, having clicked on the Print button at the bottom of the blog, there is a "Text Size" control at the top of the window which then opens. "100%" usually works. Having clicked the Print button at the top, you will have the usual control over printer properties - these will look different, depending on the browser and printer driver you are using.
Ray asked about printing a section of the blog. If you highlight the required section, you may be able to select "Selection" when the printer dialog box opens. However, it is probably easier to copy and paste the required section into Word, LibreOffice Writer, WordPad, etc and print from there.
Note that you can save the blog as a PDF by selecting "Microsoft Print to PDF" as the printer in the printer dialog box. Rather then actually printing the blog, this will create and save it as a file and you can specify the name and location.
Windows 10 - Optional Features
Tony's PC was, for some reason, showing the "Optional features" window. This is part of the Settings and you can access it at any time by going to Start, Settings, Apps, Apps & features and clicking on Manage optional features. (Note, if you are still running version 1607 of Windows, go to Start, Settings, System to find Apps & features). This will then show you a list of the optional features which you have installed. Clicking on any one of them gives you the option to Manage or sometimes to Uninstall that feature. Clicking on Add a feature will show any additional features that may be available for you to install.
Apps & Features
While we were looking at this area of Settings, I pointed out that going to Start, Settings, (Apps), Apps & features shows you all the installed apps. Clicking on any one of them gives you the option to Uninstall or Modify that app. In previous version of Windows, you had to go to Programs and Features in Control Panel to do this. Microsoft are gradually moving away from the old Control Panel to the new Settings for all controls.
Default Apps
Also found in Start, Settings, Apps is Default apps. Here you can see the current defaults and change them if you wish.
A default app is the one that will be used to open a file if you simply double-click on a file or click on a link. For example, you may have several browsers installed on your system, e.g. Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc. If you click on a web link in an email (which you should only do with caution!), Windows will look for the default browser to open that web page.
How Things Work – Ink Cartridges
Ray asked about the function of the small tear-off tab on new ink cartridges, particularly as the Epson cartridge did not appear to have a hole under the tab. In fact, the tab exposes the start of a groove which runs under the label and the air hole is at the other end of the groove. Ink cartridges need to let air in so that the ink can come out. This air hole is covered until you install it in the printer to prevent ink leakage. Why Epson use the groove, rather than a simple hole, I am not sure. Any suggestions anyone?
Next Session
We will look at re-installing Windows which can sometimes be the only way to solve weird problems.
Wed
13th September 2017 1:30 to 3:30pm.
